Living steadily in the world of gods and mystery

"Huh, what’s this? Have I missed something?" At that moment, he noticed a dark golden thread hanging from the corpse’s neck, seemingly woven from some type of hair, with the lower half buried in the chest, appearing to be a pendant.

He reached out and yanked it out.

It was a red jade pendant.

Dense symbols were engraved on it.

"Could this be something good?"

Chen Li tugged hard.

To his surprise, he couldn’t break it.

He drew his sword and decisively chopped off the corpse’s head; only then could he retrieve the jade pendant around its neck.

Without looking too closely, Chen Li placed all his findings into his storage bag, then cast Traction Skill to dig a hole and bury the body. After painfully leaving behind two Evil-Breaking Talismans as burial items, he hurried back to the city under cover of night.

In this world, summoning souls was not an inconceivable method.

Especially for someone with Foundation Establishment strength.

He could only be as cautious as possible, as careful as ever.

Just that one night, he indulged by using eighteen Evil-Breaking Talismans.

Most of them were spent at the scene of the killing.

Directly activating ten to purge the battlefield and leaving four at the scene.

Fearing that the corpses might cause trouble even after death.

...

He reached home just before dawn.

"Creak!"

As Chen Li was gently opening the door, Zhou Hong came out from inside.

"Why haven’t you slept?" Chen Li asked.

"I couldn’t sleep without you here. Is everything resolved?" Zhou Hong’s face showed concern.

"Just a minor issue, but it was bothersome and dragged on until now. I’m exhausted." Chen Li wrapped his arms around Zhou Hong, smiling as they walked toward the bedroom.

"Mhm!" Zhou Hong instantly relaxed.

The night passed without incident.

The next day was a new day.

Chen Li didn’t go anywhere.

He organized his recent gains in the basement.

Among the five scrolls in the storage bag, three were secular stories for entertainment, one was the Tianhe Gang’s ledger, and one was the Yellow and Red Skill.

Chen Li picked up the Yellow and Red Skill and browsed through it for a while.

"I never thought such an evil technique actually existed! Truly... using spiritual power like this... tsk, tsk... this method... people in this world really know how to have fun," he remarked, even as a man from the future, he couldn’t help but be amazed.

Soon, he set the book aside.

Disappointed in his heart.

This was not a method for cultivation at all. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

It was a wicked secret technique used for intimate relations.

Of what use was such a technique to him?

Immediately after, Chen Li took out the top-grade first-tier flying sword from the storage bag and swiftly refined it.

"Go!"

He controlled the flying sword, pointing a finger.

In an instant, the sword flashed like a beam of light and was gone.

The rock wall was instantly pierced through for several meters.

In terms of sensitivity, power, or speed, it far surpassed the top-grade first-tier flying sword that he had used for a long time.

"What a pity, I probably can’t use this openly until I’ve established my foundation, for safety’s sake," he said, shaking his head, as he retracted the flying sword and placed it into the storage bag.

Then there was the Red Jade.

He examined it over and over.

But alas, after a long time, he still couldn’t figure it out.

It wasn’t until he poured his spiritual power into it that he began to have some guesses.

Since refining it, he felt his thoughts seem clearer, his consciousness and soul as if protected by an additional layer, giving him an inexplicable sense of security.

"No wonder..." he muttered to himself.

During the fight the previous night.

When he suddenly used his Scolding Skill and everyone was affected except for that Zhou Family scion who remained completely unaffected. He had found it odd at the time, but now it seemed to be the work of the Red Jade pendant!

Consciousness protection, or rather, soul protection.

To be honest, he had never even seen such a type of magical artifact before.

"Sigh, troublesome!" The more he thought about it, the more astonished he became.

Storage Bag, superior first-grade robes, superior first-grade flying sword, and this extremely precious Red Jade Pendant.

The Zhou family descendant he killed last night was evidently an important figure in the Zhou family, at least highly favored.

In fact, to this day, he still could not grasp the extent of the other party’s strength.

The entire battle was incredibly brief.

At that time, they were only seven or eight meters apart, which was within striking distance for Chen Li—in the blink of an eye, from the moment he charged toward his opponent to the end when the defense was broken and death ensued, the whole process took no more than 0.5 seconds.

Moreover, after the enemy was blinded, they were plunged into extreme panic.

Until the moment of death, not a single attack was launched, not even the handy flying sword was pulled out of the Storage Bag.

"Now I can only watch and see, take it one step at a time." Chen Li thought to himself.

...

It was not until noon the next day that the Zhou family received news of the trouble at Tianhe Gang, and Zhou Dongbo’s disappearance.

The nearby streets were quickly sealed off.

All the Loose Cultivators in the vicinity were called out by the Zhou family, questioning them almost forcefully about the clues from last night, as if they had gone mad; a few lucky gang members who had escaped the disaster were given special attention, receiving a vicious slap for any sign of hesitation.

"Did you see anyone?"

"You say you weren’t there, who can prove it?"

"Kidnapped three people... Which three, what did they look like, any distinguishing features, do you recognize them?"

"You from the market selling Magic Artifacts, very good!"

"Someone from Green River District! Do you know where these people live?"

Bits of information were rapidly pieced together.

But the clues quickly broke off, no one knew where these people lived.

As Loose Cultivators who had come up from Green River District, being cautious was almost etched into their bones; if it were Zhao Lin and Gu Mengqing, it wouldn’t have been easy for someone to track their movements, or they wouldn’t have survived until now.

...

The murder scene.

Zhou Xutang picked up an Evil-Breaking Talisman placed on a corpse, his face darkened as he looked at the bodies sprawled haphazardly on the ground.

"Dammit!"

He had a middle-aged appearance, wore a green robe, and maintained a three-pronged beard, presenting a dignified and sage-like demeanor. However, at this moment, the maliciousness in his eyes completely spoiled this image.

He collected the four Evil-Breaking Talismans left at the scene into his Storage Bag.

Silently chanting a spell.

The hall soon became filled with chilling gusts and shadowy figures; though it was broad daylight, the lighting turned eerily dim, as if the whole hall had turned into a nest of ghosts and goblins.

He was casting the Resurrection Skill!

This technique was naturally not a true resurrection from the dead, but it had a similar effect. As long as the death was recent and the corpse intact with the remnant soul lingering inside, under the power of the spell, the body could ’live’ again.

Naturally, once the power of the spell ended,

death would ensue for good.

However, even after his chanting ended and the spell was cast,

aside from a corpse with a twisted neck that twitched a few times, the remaining nine beheaded bodies lay motionless, showing no sign of life.

The murderer had been too meticulous, too cautious.

Who knows how many Evil-Breaking Talismans were used!

"Patriarch, we’ve searched everywhere, we can’t find Dongbo!" a member of the Zhou family came to report.

"We must find him alive or bring back his body. Continue the search; someone from our Zhou Family cannot disappear without a trace!" Zhou Xutang said through gritted teeth, his aura subtly rising. He had a faint premonition that Dongbo was already gone.

"Isn’t it said that these people came from Green River District? Then follow this lead; find everyone from Green River District and question them one by one."

"Yes, Patriarch!"

The Zhou family member quickly retreated.

Zhou Xutang continued to search for any clue at the scene.

An ordinary great-grandson.

If he’s dead, he’s dead.

But Zhou Dongbo was different; at only twenty-eight years old, he was at the Ninth Layer of Qi Cultivation, the Qilin prodigy of the family, a seed for Foundation Establishment.

Although Zhou Xutang was aware that Zhou Dongbo was hardly well-behaved outside,

rumors of his arrogance, murder, and robbery reached his ears time and again.

But he never paid much attention to them.

For one, Zhou Dongbo was cautious and knew his place, never provoking major powers, and with his not so weak Cultivation, he had few equals in the Qi Cultivation Stage.

It was just the death of a few lowly Loose Cultivators.

What was so terrible about it?

In his eyes, they were just children’s temper tantrums.

Secondly, other Foundation Establishment families, even the Longevity Sect, had to show a degree of respect to the Zhou Family.

He just never expected this time...

"Very good, very cruel! Just wait, I will find out!" Zhou Xutang clenched his teeth in anger, his eyes ablaze with fury.